My husband and I every year host a Halloween party for our oldest daughters class. This year however she is in sixth grade and we felt that she may be getting too old for a costume party. As a family our favorite show is the amazing race, with this theme in mind I planned this years event. At three in the afternoon everyone in her class met at our house, (13 children total) once in they were asked to take their shoes off as a house courtesy and come into the den to watch a taped segment of the Amazing race finale. (while they watched my Husband and friends set up their first challenge) After about ten minutes the TV was turned off and envelopes containing instructions, teams and T-shirts were given out. (I had amazing help for this party, one mother owned a shirt shop and gave them to me at cost) Teams were then told to change shirts and put on their shoes (a little time thing) and head out front for their first challenge.

1. Four wheel barrels each containing the teams color of balloon were waiting. Each team had to first inflate eight balloon, carry their heaviest member inside and push them around the block without popping or loosing any balloons.

2. Their next clue asked them to find their taxi waiting for them in the neighborhood each team would know whos was whos because the team color was hanging inside from the rearview mirror.(again fabulous friends and parents consented to be taxis) Once inside they made their way to a rock climbing gym and one member had to climb up to the top of a rock wall, once down they were told to choose again and another must climb up. (If you think this is too expensive find another fun thing, but don't hesitate to ask for discounts we were able to get outstanding prices on many of these adventures after I talked to the manager or owner) After that they received their next clue.

3.Next they headed off to a sushi restaurant where they were presented with three kinds of sushi and had to clean their plates in order to receive their next clue, which was to

4. Head to Barnes and Noble - they had to wait in line at the cafe order each team member a chocolate chip cookie and ask for the manager on duty. The manager had a list of five questions they had to asnwer before moving on and receiving their next clue which was to walk down to

5. Party America and make a balloon animal (we chose the dog which was relatively easy, but only provided them with one pump, they could use the pump or blow it up) once that was completed they had to purchase a helium filled balloon and tie it to their wrists where it had to remain until the end of the race.

6. Next they had to find a place that would give them and all teammates a free hat ( Krispy Kreme, Long john silvers, or Burger King will )

7. They then had to make their way to Beautyco where the manager awaited them with their next challenge which was a road block -all team members had to do it or it didn't count- all had to put their hair into three ponytails with one on top of their head,next they had to spray temporary color in their hair in order to receive their next clue!(My husband thought he had to do this too, so at the end of the race he showed up with blue and red hair!)

8.Finally they had to return to our house where they were led out into the backyard( which had been sectioned off) with flashlights where they had to find an owl pellet. Once they found this and disected it (owl pellets are owl poo, you can order this on insectlore.com) and find three bones they received their next clue which was their pit stop for this race-We all traveled together to a pizza place and ate.

Now by this time the kids all had on team shirts, a balloon tied to their wrist, three ponytails with two different colors sprayed in, some were wearing hats and all received a lei at the pit stop which they had to wear. When we finished eating I surprised them with one final leg- a cornfield maze. We all traveled by car to a ten acre corn-maze where the kids were allowed to work alone or together. (cornfieldmaze.com to find one near you, totally seasonal) All in all this was a very exciting party to plan, along with a lot of help the execution wasn't that difficult. The invitations were printed on the back of scrapbooking paper that looked like a map and all the clues that were handed out were the same color as the teams shirts- they all had a little riddle to be solved, but always contained the address so it wasn't too hard.

The rock climbing gym asked us to have a liability waver signed beforehand, so I went to each parent before the invitations were passed out and secured their signatures, this was a great way to delete the old RSVP by a certain date, because everyone who signed the waver showed up. I had in total two parents per car, sometimes three. With a total of four teams in play. All arrived at each location seperately and we had very little overlap time, they knew in advance it was a first come first served basis so if they would have had to wait they knew those were the rules.( It's a race,Duh!) Everyone had a great time and I have no idea what I can do to top this next year. Good Luck!